Holy Trinity or Te Deum (Center Panel Detail #1 and #2)
Phipps, Ball & Burnham (Conjecture) - Circa 1920
In Loving Memory of
Joseph Beverly Browne 1814 - 1888 &
Mary Nieves Browne 1824 - 1911
Devoted Father and Mother
DESCRIPTION: The central panel of this glorious window is devoted to the Trinity. God the Father is represented by a hand holding a triangle. His son, Jesus, sits enthroned, with His right hand raised in blessing. His left hand holds a sphere representing the universe. To His right is the symbol of the Holy Ghost, a dove. Kneeling directly below Christ a youthful angel plays the harp. Above the harp are the words: "We Praise Thee Oh God."
MEMORIAL: John Eaton Browne and Elizabeth Ann Browne of Windsor, James City County, Virginia, were the parents of twins, Joseph Beverly and Peter Fielding, born on November 6, 1814. At 16 Joseph came to Key West to live. He married Mary Nieves Ximenez, a charming, dark-eyed beauty from St. Augustine, on December 10, 1840. They were the parents of four children.
Joseph had a distinguished career of public service. He was a United States marshal for Florida, Clerk of the U.S. Court, a member of the Legislature of Florida (1866-1870), mayor of Key West several different times, postmaster, and for many years, a warden of St. Paul's.
Mary Nieves of St. Augustine, one of the only other cities of any size in Florida outside of Key West, was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Ximenez. After her marriage to Joseph, she was distinguished for her church and community work. In 1851 she was treasurer of the Ladies Missionary Society of St. Paul's and served as the first president of the Daughters of the King. During the yellow fever epidemics she ministered to the sick. In 1867 she was president of the Confederate Memorial Society. It was sometime during this year that Joseph and Mary Nieves entertained Varina Howell Davis and her husband, Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy from 1862-1865.
After Joseph died on December 27, 1888, Mary placed a memorial marble tablet in the third church of St. Paul's. When this wooden church was destroyed in the 1909 hurricane, the memorial tablet, along with others, was saved and was set in the north wall of the present church where it can be seen today.
Source: The Golden Cockerel: The Art, Symbolism & History of the Stained Glass Windows, St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Key West, Florida by Winifred Shine Fryzel.
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